Friday, August 6, 2010

Sydney - Mumu Grill and an audience with ATFT!

WARNING. LOTS OF PHOTOS AHEAD. LOTS OF PHOTOS.

Because I am a camera-whore, something which I very openly admit and something which my friends have just come to learn to live with.

Now take the natural camera-whore tendencies of constantly having a finger on the trigger button, put me in a room filled with other people with DSLR's, yummy food and the freedom to take as many photos as I please, without worry that I might be boring someone and...well yeah. You get a lot of photos.

Simon and I went to Mumu Grill in Crows Nest, Sydney, to attend a food photography workshop held by Billy, who keeps the very well known blog, A Table For Two.

It was a lovely afternoon, meeting some fellow bloggers (go say hi to Rhonda, Ja and Gianna!), some fellow food lovers and learning a couple of tricks with the camera. Although I found since I was quite comfortable with my camera, I didn't learn maybe as much as I was expecting, but at the same time it is reassuring to know I do somewhat know what I am doing!

If Billy does do more of these sessions though, I certainly do recommend them, whether you are amateur or more experienced, as there is always something to learn and it is a most fascinating experience. Especially when the food all came out...in a sea of food lovers you would expect us all to leap for the food, armed with cutlery, but no!

For a good 15 to 20 minutes, we poured over the food with our cameras, analyzing it from every angle that we could. Prowling up and down the table to try the brighter light at the window and then adjusting our white balance as we moved to the darker end of the room.

So sadly, once we did descend on to the food, it was a bit colder than one would usually like, but still quite delicious all the same.

Organic chicken with maple roasted sweet potato and spinach, chicken a tad dry for me, but the sweet potato was lovely.

Sirloin Tagliatta, with greens, was cooked very nicely and had a lovely texture. Just a shame that we took so many photos that it turned cold!

Braised chorizo with parmesan, so rich but so delicious!

Szechuan fried prawns with pickled chilli and soy. I enjoyed these quite a bit more than I expected to I think, nice and light and well seasoned.

Cherry tomato salad, with some of the sweetest and firmest tomatoes I've ever had. This was seasoned perfectly as well and even though I imagine this is a side, I could've easily just had that for lunch!

Didn't take long for the plates to look like this...

And to finish off, a very luscious looking dessert platter.

Photography ensued, but not for very long, as on my end of the table, including myself, we had all the sweet tooth's!

Rhonda couldn't resist getting into the pineapple and passionfruit meringue, which was well received by all.

The chocolate tart was easily my favourite, being exceedingly rich and thick, with a strong cocoa taste.

This orange and gingerbread combination did not impress me so much, the gingerbread/cake was quite dry and uninspiring. And well, not quite as sweet as the meringue and tart either, which is probably why the sweet teeth weren't so fond of it...

And lastly, a little, what we assumed was, hazelnut ice-cream pot. Unfortunately it did all melt. Didn't stop us lapping it up and absolutely loving it, it was so nutty which surprised my taste buds quite a bit!

Yes we demolished that dessert platter good!

Again, I do recommend anyone who is interested in food and photography, to see if they can get themselves into one of Billy's workshops, there is always something to learn and I have been inspired to make some changes to my blog...keep an eye on this space...

Mumu Grill itself, is a little bit hard to comment on, especially since we weren't eating under normal circumstances! I found most of the food to be pretty good, with a few things that flew under the radar for me. They did definitely make up for it with dessert though!